


Adventure At Last

by worm_blooded



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf, Doomsday, F/M, Rose Tyler - Freeform, TARDIS - Freeform, TenToo - Freeform, Tentoosday (Doctor Who), The Doctor - Freeform, doctor who - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29457426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worm_blooded/pseuds/worm_blooded
Summary: This is a prologue to a much larger work I started over 6 years ago, but since I never continued I'll just call it a one-shot :^)(also that work was meant to be a MLP/DW crossover so...)
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tentoo / Rose
Kudos: 2





	Adventure At Last

_'Shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabiliser to a foldback harmonica 36.3, you accelerate the growth power by 59.'_

Not the most inspiring quote at first glance, but that was all the Doctor needed to set his hearts a flutter-- no, wait, that's not right! He was a human now, and he needed to start getting used to the strange, empty feeling of having only one heart (though he never actually would). Despite this, those words were also like lead in his one heart, blooming voids that gnawed at the tissues. They were the last he'd ever hear Donna Noble say.

That aside, the Doctor's new life was a blessing. He would never again have to deal with the deep sorrow that used to be his daily prescription from the darker parts of the universe, except from maybe the few close people in his life who would eventually get the Grim Reaper knocking on their doors, him included now. It surely beat slowly watching everyone you loved and cared for turn to dust, which was sadly the fate of his counterpart, probably at that moment roaming the universe in his Box like the madman he was.

Life with Rose was like drinking hot cocoa cuddled up under the covers on a stormy winter's night-- it just felt right. They had gotten a tiny house on the outskirts of parallel London, not too far from Jackie, Mickie, and the bunch. Rose had received a position in Torchwood, while the Doctor, also having been offered a job in 'alien affairs' which he turned down so he could get a taste of human life, found work in the strangest of places. Couldn't quite commit, that one. Despite all that though, he had a hunger that could not be satisfied by a good ol' trip to the fish n' chips bar. He missed the adventure. He was not alone though, Rose did too, deep down in her one heart.

Now, the Doctor had a secret that would change all that. Every last morsel, chunk and bit. It risked bringing back the take-two-daily pills of grief, but the both of them knew that they would throw back their heads and down them in a heartbeat-- in moderation, of course. It all began with Donna's famous last words.

**~**

Sweat pooled and dripped off of John Smith's brow, or at least the general population knew him by that name. To Rose and the rest of the Tylers, he was known as the Doctor, and he was on the brink of challenging the life that they had made for themselves in parallel Earth ever since the battle of Canary Wharf. Rose's birthday was coming up and he had something very special planned as her gift.

“Yes!” he cried as he jumped out of his seat to celebrate, but his head connected with the low basement ceiling. He cringed and rubbed the throbbing bump, but smiled. Nothing could dampen his jolly mood. He had finally completed what he had been working on for months: he had finally made the TARDIS coral grow.

After making his make-shift sonic screwdriver his second month living on parallel Earth (out of sheer boredom and a fair bit of nostalgia), he had set out to make the TARDIS coral chunk that his original self had given him grow. Following Donna's advice was extremely tedious and time-consuming, but after many sleepless nights spent tinkering with it in the basement, he had finally cracked the code.

Rose stirred in the bed. Realising that the spot beside her was devoid of a body, she groaned. Maybe the Doctor could have gotten away with pulling all-nighters as a Time Lord, but as a human it was unhealthy. She swung her feet over the side of the bed, tucked them into her fuzzy slippers, and shuffled off into the hallway. The path before her was faintly illuminated by the first traces of dawn.

In the basement, the Doctor positioned the sonic screwdriver so that it was directly pointed at the coral chunk, that was already slightly larger than before. The last step required the sonic to directly pummel it with waves for 24 Earth hours, and from there it would rapidly grow into the shell of a time machine-- hopefully.

“Sweetie, you should really sleep from time to time, y’know?” said Rose, leaning against the basement's door frame.

The Doctor jumped, almost dropping his sonic. “Blimey, Rose! Don't scare me like that!” he said, his one heart racing.

“See? Your nerves are shot. You need to call it a night... or morning” she said, a slight smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “What are you doing, anyway?”

“Oh, nothing important,” he said quickly, throwing a blanket over his work.

Rose raised an eyebrow, mimicking the way in which he often rose his. Nothing got past her, but she chose to ignore it for the moment. Every muscle in her body was pulling her back to bed. She yawned. “Well, you can continue it later. Come, get some rest,” she held out her hand and the Doctor took it reluctantly.

Suddenly, it was as if a dam had broken and flooded his veins with lead, and all he could think of was closing his eyes and drifting off. Maybe sleep wasn't so bad after all.

**~**

“He was up all night, again?” trilled Jackie, picking up her cup of tea to sip. She had come over to have her usual Sunday brunch with Rose.

“I've lost count of all the times I've had to force him to sleep, at least for a wink. I honestly don't know what he's been doing down there,” replied Rose, solemnly staring into her cup as the tea leaves settled at the bottom. If they really could predict the future, she wondered what they would show her.

“Well, if you ask me, I wouldn't want to know.”

“Mum!” said Rose, glaring at her mother.

“What? He's a man now, and men tend to get up to funny business when they're alone, what with the internet nowadays,” replied Jackie curtly, raising her perfectly-plucked eyebrows and taking a sip of her tea.

Rose sighed. “I'm worried for him, you know? I sometimes wonder if he's actually adjusting as a partial-human. He hasn't been able to keep a single job, and it's only been six months!”

“That's not surprising, dear. He's really all over the place, that one. It's just a part of his personality.”

“I guess you're right,” said Rose, and they sat in silence, sipping their teas.

“Oh, by the way, you lot are coming over to celebrate your birthday tomorrow,” said Jackie, breaking the silence. “There'll be a feast fit for kings, alright. I can't believe you're turning 21 already.”

Rose smiled and started stacking their crumb-covered dishes. “Me neither, time really does fly.”

She walked into the kitchen, carrying the pile and was startled to see the Doctor leaning over the counter, searching for the cereal in the Tupperware cupboard. “Oh sweetie, did you manage to rest up?” she asked, but as he turned and she saw his bleary eyes and their matching bags, she already knew the answer.

“Top of the morning to ya, eh Rose?” he said, smiling weakly. “I woke up craving a snack, but when I looked in my housecoat, there weren’t any satsumas,” he chuckled and ran a hand through his incredibly messy and greasy hair.

Rose walked over to the cereal cupboard and got out some oats. She put water on to boil. “Sit down, I'll make you some porridge. Four hours is not enough sleep time, you know? Will you promise me that you'll go to bed at a decent hour tonight?”

The Doc slid into one of the kitchen chairs and slumped, rubbing his eyes. “Yeah, I know. It's just that I'm working on something important.”

“Oh? And what's more important than your health and well being?”

He puffed up his cheeks and blew out a steady stream of air, lost in thought. “Can't say right now.”

'Hm,' murmured Rose, as she stirred oats into the boiling water. She let them sit, walked over to the table and sat down, facing the Doctor. She put her hands on his-- successfully stopping him from picking apart his cuticles-- and looked him in the eye. “Is everything alright with you?”

He stared back at her. “Yep, everything is,” he said, but his eyes betrayed a slight flicker, invisible to others, but not Rose. She too had that faint glint hidden deep within her eyes: it was the lust for adventure.

**~**

A faint tune and the sound of falling water came from under the closed washroom door as the Doctor hummed an abstract song. Rose had sent him off to take a shower --much to his reluctance-- before making him take a nap.

Rose stayed in the kitchen, cleaning up after the morning's mess of plates and cups. As she dried the dishes, she watched Jackie from the kitchen window walking down the street to the buss stop. Rose had always wanted a kitchen looking out on the garden instead of a car-filled street. It would also be a good way to keep an eye on any future little ones running about the yard. She blushed at this, and in her absent-minded wistfulness, a saucer, still soapy, slipped from her grasp and landed on the floor. To her relief it didn't break, but rolled across the kitchen tile, only to stop at the basement door. She sighed and walked over to pick it back up, but as she bent over, a faint pulsing caught her ear. It was coming from downstairs. ' _Now, what could that be?'_ she wondered as she tentatively crept down the stairs, careful not to loose the source of the sound. She made her way to the Doctor's work table, and discovered the source to be under the blanket he had quickly shielded his secret project with earlier that morning.

The blanket was a grey-brown and made of a fairly thick fleece-wool blend, yet a dim, blue light still managed to penetrate its fibers. Rose slowly lifted her hand to take a peek at what was underneath, curiosity getting the best of her, but what she didn't hear was the soft, wet slap of feet as they reached the door.

“Rose! No, don't look at that!” urged the Doctor from the doorway, wearing only a light blue towel.

Rose fell back from the table. “I understand why you don't like me sneaking up on you now,” she said and gave a little, apprehensive laugh. “I'm sorry, it's just that I got so curious. Will I ever get to know what's under there?”

“Oh yes, very soon,” he said as he descended the stairs, and grinned at her.

Rose couldn't help but smile back.

He walked over and put a damp arm around her shoulders. “Now, off to take a nap, eh?”

“Yes, for you, but I've got a little errand to run for something that's come up at work. It offers good overtime wages, so I can't pass it up.” She said, shrugging off his arm, and prepared to leave.

**~**

That 'short errand' turned out to take much longer than anticipated, and Rose crawled home well past the witching hour. Without bothering to eat or change, she flopped onto the bed and fell fast asleep, taking no notice of the once again empty spot beside her.

Night turned to morning, and Rose finally woke up to the sounds of the birds outside her window. She, selfishly, liked to imagine that they were singing a special birthday tune, composed just for her.

Once she noticed she was wearing yesterday's now wrinkled work-wear, she slipped into her lounging clothes and made her way to the kitchen to make breakfast, only to find it was already made. Atop the counter lay a plate of slightly runny scrambled eggs and a glass of pulp-filled orange juice. A note beside the meal read _'Meet me in the basement'._ She took the plate and glass and obeyed the haphazard cursive.

“There's the birthday girl!” said the Doctor, upon hearing Rose enter the basement. He was tinkering with some finishing touches as he came into Rose's view, once again shielding the mysterious project from her. As he stood back to reveal it once and for all, its full splendour greeted her eager eyes.

All that could be heard was the shatter of ceramic as it hit the cold concrete floor-- an untouched breakfast now destined to be forever unsullied by hungry lips. Rose just stared, her mouth forming words that never came out. A wave of different emotions flowed through her, but she couldn't grasp one long enough to describe how she felt. “Is that what I think it is?” she finally managed to say.

Before her, on the table stood a perfectly to scale miniature of the type 40 TARDIS interior that she knew so well, or at least to anyone else it would have appeared that way, but Rose knew better.

It was really a condensed visual of the actual dimension that normally lay just beyond their reaches, but the Doctor had figured out a way to access it and grow a new ship. Her mind immediately went back to what Donna had said on Bad Wolf Bay. How could she have so easily forgotten that the original Doctor had given them a little chunk of his TARDIS? She had tried so hard to forget the TARDIS life and settle down once more, and it appeared as though she had succeeded. Upon seeing the oh-so-familiar console again however, she knew she could lie to herself no longer. She ran up to the Doctor and hugged him. “So, what now?” she asked, breathing into his neck.

He released her grip, held her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “We pick an exterior.”


End file.
